Automobile weatherstrips of the type with which this invention is concerned are commonly formed by extruding a thermosetting elastomer such as EPDM rubber on a supporting carrier such as a woven wire carrier, a stamped metal carrier, a plastic carrier or the like. Preferably a layer of decorative material such as a fabric layer is attached to a portion of the surface of the weatherstrip.
Weatherstrips of the above type exhibit the disadvantage that when mounted on small radius comers with the fabric layer on the inside of the corner, the fabric tends to wrinkle. Known weatherstrips also have a tendency to exhibit another aesthetically degrading characteristic. For cost reasons it is desirable that the EPDM robber body on the supporting carrier be relatively thin to minimize the amount of robber required to make the weatherstrip. If the thickness is low enough, the individual wires of the wire carrier may be visible through the robber body. More accurately, the shapes of wires not the wires themselves are visible. This effect is known in the industry as read through or the "hungry horse effect", and while not impairing the function of the weatherstrip is undesirable from an appearance standpoint.
Weatherstrip in accordance with this invention minimizes or eliminates the wrinkling of a decorative layer positioned at the inside of a small radius corner.